just the silly ol' grandma here

announcing the arrival of some one far more awesome than any art work I'm making

I was in the midst of working on a blog post last Wednesday morning when I got the call from my daughter

it was time!

we tossed stuff in the car and took off like a shot

since then I've been a little busy, but not so much with art work ---

holding the baby and helping out in the household with the dogs and the kitchen

we got home last night, and will go back for Christmas activities later in the week

here is what I had been writing before we took off:

after that second trip through the washer, here is the hat on the wig stand to dry

amazing!

can't wait for it to dry so I can start adding the flowers and beads around the brim


progress is being made on the hand bag

I've decided that the pocket for the cell phone will go on what is the right hand side in the picture, so I only put one small piece of decorative braid on that side

and more on the other side

probably will add something else in the center before I put on the wide stuff that will cover the two seams and the raw edges of the braid that is already there


a while back a friend in one of my quilting groups gave me a large stash of landscape fabrics to use in my projects

I wanted to do something as a thank you to her, and she asked me if I could do a Hawaii piece for her sister

I've been thinking about it for a while now, and here is the first of the drawings on the tracing paper all ready for me to add the color and start creating the patterns

it's kind of hard to tell what any of this is right now, except the mountain there to the left, which is Diamond Head

once again trying out new approaches, new techniques -- fun!
and because I was in the car a bit in the last few days, the sleeves for the sweater I'm making the DH are now all finished

in fact, I've got only 2 more rows of ribbing on the body of the sweater to do before I'll be into the pattern rows of that

moving along

(knitting was the only thing I worked on while I was away -- I had other things with me, but I just never got there!)

and as I write this, the washer and the dryer are humming along -- I'll be working on getting us all packed up to take off for Christmas

never a dull moment here!

Art Quilting for the Common Good

Every now and then you get to make a small contribution to a good cause and see much larger good come from it. Last year I donated a little art quilt to Ami Simms AlzQuilts project. It ended up going to the big Houston quilt show, helping to raise over $30,000. That money was awarded as a grant to the University of Michigan for research into Alzheimer's and its causes.

Yesterday, there was a press release about some very promising positive results created because of that grant. You can read the whole story here: Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative.

I'm delighted to have my small efforts joined with many others to help make the world a better place and give hope to those who are suffering with this disease --- like little drops of water a mighty river make!

and here are pictures of yesterday's activities in the studio

the front of the handbag, where I have stitched together the three panels I needed to create the front

and the very first bit of embellishment

before I get too carried away with the embellishing, I need to figure out exactly where I will place the pocket for the cell phone (no point wasting fancy braid or embroidery work in a spot that I'm just going to cover up with the pocket!)

the first of the three leaves I'm working on is ready for the quilting

I decided to use a fabric for the framing that looks like old barn wood

and how did I find that fabric? by looking at the back of a piece left over from another project

last night I started the quilting on this while the TV was tuned to PBS for the Concordia College Christmas special (I love TV this time of year, there are so many really great music shows to listen to -- also a few not so great ones, but at least I have choices!)

along with starting the quilting on this, I've started working on the applique of another of the leaf blocks too -- I'm doing the maple next

this morning the hat and the flowers went into the washer for the second round of felting -- I've found that because I have an old washer it sometimes takes more that one trip through to get something properly felted -- so tomorrow there should be pictures of the hat on the form and the flowers all laid out on towels -- nice to have this all coming together

who knows what kind of stuff I'll be able to stir up in the studio today!

Porcu-pocket?

I spent quite a bit of time working on the handbag yesterday

this is a project that I'm doing all by hand -- so it takes a bit longer than it would otherwise

I decided that I would still want a pocket on the outside of my bag to hold my cell phone

the bottom of this little pocket was one of the original pockets on the little coat

I made it a little narrower and added an extra strip at the top to make it deep enough that I won't have to worry about the phone slipping out (you can tell where the seam is for the add on because I covered it with that pretty braid)

the pocket has been totally lined too -- I stitched the pocket and the lining together face to face then turned it and closed the opening and top stitched along the top edge

it's all ready to be attached to the front of the bag (which is why it resembles a porcupine!)
got some more braid attached to the back of the bag too

that narrow strip covers the spot in the fabric where the pressing of 50 years had left an indelible mark

nice

so today it will be on to working on the front of the bag, and I'm planning to do a lot more embellishment there


the leaf is all appliqued down on this piece now

not bad

today I will work on adding the side strips and getting this set up to start on the quilting

and do some writing about how to put it together for the pattern


meantime there is laundry to do (which means I'll be having a go at felting the hat and flowers) and maybe some baking

and more work in the studio!

the finished ottoman

and this is how I did it

here it is with a blue tape guide line

I decided I didn't want to to the skirting more than once, so it was a good idea for it to be straight and level the first time

enter the blue painter's tape and the yard stick -- it was just like back in the days when you marked a hem for a dress -- measuring up from the floor all the way around and making the marks


and here we have the welting all pinned along the top edge of that blue tape mark

the trickiest part of this was the "fiddly" place where the welting comes together -- where to place it and making sure it looks smooth

I decided the center of one of the long sides was the best place

and that trimming and butting together of the cord then covering it with the fabric went pretty well

when you attach these things you're supposed to use these little cardboard strips so when you turn the skirt down you have a nice smooth edge

I didn't have any of those little strips you're supposed to buy

but cereal boxes? those I've got (I save them to use for patterns and crafting -- and now a new use!)

here they are, all cut on the paper cutter to 1/2 inch wide and however long the box was
on to the stapling

the skirting panel turned toward the top, the edge of it lined up with the edge of the welting, cardboard strip on top of that

staple -- with long staples so it grabs through the cardboard and the skirt and the welting and the batting and into the wood underneath

oh yes, be sure to get those corner pleated panels in there in the right places too

this is the "Marilyn Monroe in the white dress over the street vent" version of this little project -- skirts up!
and here is the finished project

this is definitely one of those "did I do that?" moments

I keep walking into the living room to look at it again to be sure I didn't just dream it all

sometimes I'm amazed at just how much you can accomplish if you have the ability (or should I say gift) of being able to read an instruction and teach yourself how to do something

the upholstery book is the equivalent of a cook book -- neat!!

other projects were happening here in the studio too

since I've decided I need finished objects to take pictures of to put on the front of the patterns I'm working on, I needed to start those objects

these two panels will be two more leaf projects - maple and cottonwood

and here they are all stamped with the rubber stamps, waiting for me to press them then get on to the stitching

after I had finished doing the stamping, this is what the "palette" looked like

I use a 12 inch ceramic tile to mix colors with textile medium and then as the "stamp pad" from which I pick up the paint to stamp onto the cloth

the left overs this time just looked really neat (the picture doesn't really capture it because of the "hot spot" in the middle from the flash)

I know from past experience that if you leave this on the tile it will dry into a solid sheet of acrylic that has a sort of rubbery feel to it and you can peel it off in one piece (I did that once by accident and my brain filed that away in its random access memory)

this time I'm doing it on purpose -- I want to see if I can actually use that stuff to create some cut out leaves to add to the quilted piece when I get to the embellishment stage
this is the third leaf piece

the fabric I picked out for the background on this one already had leaf like shapes printed on it, so I decided no stamping was required

I did embroider around a few of those printed leaves to accent them -- and when I do the quilting I use the rest of those as quilt guides

the piece being attached is the first piece of the big leaf in the center

doesn't look like much right now

stay with me, these get better as they go

remember a few weeks ago I talked about making myself a new handbag out of the felted fabric of a long ago coat?

this is the back panel

because the coat was a small child's coat and the pattern had some interesting design features, there was no single piece of felt that I could cut the entire back (or front) from

this suits my purpose just fine, however -- I want to do quite a bit of embellishing anyway, so that first seam there was an ideal place

on the right hand side of the panel, if you look closely, you can see a line where the original fabric had been pressed -- ah, another design opportunity! I'll be doing some kind of embroidery or applying of braid or something there too

the first sleeve of the sweater is complete

the last row and the transferring to the stitch holder finished at 11 pm as I was watching the end of the folk music show on our local PBS station

knitting along to the tunes of Pete Seager, Chad Mitchell and The Byrds

great way to spend a Saturday evening


who knows what I'll get done today!

no fruit (almost) fruit cake

since I have finished my Christmas making and shopping and wrapping and shipping, it's time to do a little baking

the DH is a first generation American, and this recipe came with his English family

it's sort of like fruit cake, except the only fruit in it is dates

instead, it has pieces of gum drops!

I hadn't made this recipe for at least 10 years, so this year I decided it was time

if you'd like to make yourself a batch, I posted the recipe other there at Hattie's Kitchen this morning -- complete with some pretty detailed step by step instructions -- Enjoy!
so while the gum drop bread was cooking, I worked on the ottoman a bit more

here it is with the fabric over the entire thing

the "skirts" have been stitched, but they still need to be pressed and top stitched before I can do the final step of attaching them around the sides (about 5 inches down from the top)

so far this has been pretty easy, so I'm gaining confidence for tackling the chair

the hat and all its many flowers, leaves and vines are now ready to be felted

I hope it comes out looking as neat as it does laying here!

the hat and all of the flowers and leaves will go into a hot wash on Monday when I do laundry (the leaves and flowers will go into a net bag -- I don't want the sock eating washing machine to acquire a taste for flowers!)

while I'm felting those I also will be throwing in a wool skirt that's older than my daughter and hoping it will felt up nicely too
and lookie!

actual progress on the sleeve of the sweater I'm making for the DH

nice -- I've done about 17 inches -- only 4 more inches before it goes on a holder and I start on the second sleeve

(this is a pattern knit from the bottom up in the round and when both sleeves and the body are all done to the arm pits, you join them all together and knit the top up from there)

nice


I started putting together the three leaf quilts yesterday too -- I hope to get the paint stamping part of those done today

and the baking of dog biscuits

(that last item being top on my dog's "mommy do" list!)

the leaves are done

last night, while I was sitting in front of the TV after dinner I finished the quilting of the last aspen leaf

all 61 of them have now been bagged up and put in the work flat with the rest of the trees project

(which has now become too big a project to haul around as "portable")

it's time to pull out the air brush inks and the textile medium and get that background color stamped on there!


and yes, I'm sensing a nature theme here!

this project is also done!

wall hanging measures 12 inches square and has a hanging ring on the back to hang it this way

now I'm working on writing the instructions for the making of this piece

last night I decided that it would be a good idea if I can manage to have the three other leaf patterns available for the trunk show too, so today I'll be going through the stash tubs and pulling out the materials

the other three leaves are from the wall hanging I gave to my doctor, and I've not done them as individual free standing pieces, though they certainly would fit in with this one -- this one is the oak leaf and the other three are maple, aspen and cottonwood

yup, looks like I've created myself a whole new project to work on!

during the summer the DH spent a lot of time refinishing the wood frame for an antique chair that was given to me by a friend

when he finished the chair, he decided a small ottoman to go with it would be a good idea, so he used some legs that came off of some other piece of furniture (can we say they had been hanging around so long that we don't even remember what they came off of!), and built this

yesterday I put on the layer of padding that goes under the upholstery

I had been thinking about how to do this for a while, and I'm pleased to say it went a lot easier than I thought it would

the cording, which will go all around the base, is also all ready, so the next step is to get the patterned fabric on there

then it will be on to the chair -- a much bigger project, but one for which I have a really good book that takes you step by step through doing

never a dull moment here!

leaf it alone

the quilting on this piece is now finished

I had started this one a couple of months ago, along with two others on a similar theme, but after I finished the first two I decided I wanted to use this design to create a pattern for my trunk show

and then I did a bunch of other projects

so this week I realized that I have about 5 weeks to the trunk show and I probably should get busy on this

today I'll be doing the binding and trying to decide which side goes up and what sort of hanging device I will use -- the first two on this theme have "tabs" and a piece of natural wood as a hanging rod -- and I may do that again

I'll also be adding some beads and charms to this

other sewing got done yesterday too -- the stealth Christmas sewing is done!

more flowers got knit

my favorite is that dahlia looking piece -- and the daisy isn't bad either

I've got six flowers all knit up now, so this evening I'll probably do some leaves, but I'm really thinking I'd like to make at least one more of those dahlia things


yesterday something I had ordered for my friend in San Jose FINALLY arrived, so I have now wrapped and packed and that box is sitting in the front hall to go to the mail stop today -- actually its probably good that the ordered item was the last thing to show up -- I had to get it into wrapping paper right away to resist deciding to keep it for myself!

so today a trip for mailing (and stamps so I can mail the cards), some baking and more work on the leaf piece -- and maybe some work on the new Hoffman piece -- oh, and bows on that growing stack of presents for the folks here -- 'tis the season to be busy!

I did what?

that's my thought this morning as I sat down to post here

I checked the camera (my usual starting point) -- nope, no pictures there, not even a cute snap of a bird in the tree or the dog doing something silly

I know I was awake yesterday, and I didn't just sit and watch TV, honest!

there's just not much to take pictures of when

1. you sign and fold and stuff and seal 45 Christmas letters into the cards (which I had already addressed over the Thanksgiving weekend)

2. you successfully find a box in the house to pack up the packages that need to get shipped to California -- including re-wrapping one present in a different shaped box so they would all fit

3. you complete the most difficult step in the stealth Christmas sewing project

4. you work on the directions that go in the pattern that you need to have finished and ready to go for the trunk show that's happening in January

5. you work on the actual piece that the pattern is based on because you need to have it finished to show at said trunk show

6. you knit a new flower to be felted for the hat

7. you knit on the sleeve of the new sweater in process

8. you quilt 10 more aspen leaves

ok, maybe those last 4 items really could have had pictures taken somewhere along the line -- I'll try to do better with that

meantime, I feel sort of like I'm rattling around -- too many projects already completed and we're in "drop it all and go" mode because my daughter's baby could come any day (the due date is Dec 18, so she's already closer than I ever got since she came 3 weeks before her due date)

I've even already wrapped all of the Christmas presents (except the sock ones), and they are sitting in a pile on the floor of the living room waiting for bows

time to go start a new project or two

wherein there is great celebrating

Did you hear the shouting and rejoicing?

I FINALLY finished writing the Christmas letter!!!!

so there will be printing and folding and stuffing of envelopes soon (like today or tomorrow)

and the knitting of flowers for felting and using on the hat can now resume

the yarn all dried and I got it balled up yesterday

looking forward to creating some cool things with this stuff






this little guy (and several of his pals) were hanging out in the tree outside my dining room window earlier in the week

they're looking pretty fat and sassy

the weather has been unseasonably warm here -- upper 50s in December is just not right -- so I'm still seeing the birds that are usually out of sight by now

be the first on your block

I'm hardly ever the first one to do anything, but yesterday I was the very first person to get a piece of the fabric for the 2011 Hoffman Challenge from my local quilt shop

having heard on Friday that the fabric had arrived and was being prepared to put on display I could hardly wait to get my hands on the stuff

the challenge fabric is the green with the big floral patterns on it, and the other piece of fabric is one (of several) coordinating fabrics that Hoffman has created to go with this

and I went ahead and splurged on the Sulky threads (using those makes the piece eligible for another category in the competition)

this is sort of my "reward" for working on and completing the Christmas projects

now it's on to the detailed drawings of our idea so I can determine what other fabrics I will need and just how big this thing will be

speaking of those Christmas projects

I finished these up yesterday

you may recognize the containers

over the summer my mother gave me a number of these because I was pretty sure I'd be able to find some uses for them

and the labels on the jars are a nifty combination of a drawing that I did the "old fashioned" way which I then scanned and combined with some lettering from my Printshop program, printed out and cut then ran through my Xyron to make them into stickers that I could just apply to the jars -- got to love blending the many arts and crafts I dabble in!
and since I was fiddling around in the kitchen with messy stuff, I decided I might as well go ahead and dye up some of the left over wool from the hat knitting so I can knit up the rest of the flowers

it's pretty amazing what you can create in a quart jar with Koolaid! the colors are strawberry-orange; strawberry-grape; lemonade; lemon-lime and berry blue

you won't get me to drink the stuff, but it makes wonderful dye!

more tree ornaments!

love the blue one with the silver ric rac

and the red/green with gold ones are pretty cool too

the one with the red ric rac just doesn't have the same "zip", but if someone has a country Christmas theme, it would be perfect

so now I need to decide how many more of these I'll be making

and while I was at the sewing machine working on these I did some more work on that stealth sewing project that I'm trying to get finished


having decided that the first swatch I had done was not going to grow up to be a sweater, I did this one last night

different pattern, different size needles

made gauge first time out of the gate

the new pattern is knit in the round -- sleeves first, then the body then you take all of those open stitches and knit the yoke -- cool, no stitching up!

looks like fun

and now, back to working on the Christmas letter -- STILL!

it's a tree tree ornament

nope, not stuttering

it's a Christmas tree ornament in the shape of a tree

(you may now commence singing "O Tannenbaum")

I picked up this idea from an online quilter's emag, and decided to give it a try

I like this one so well that I pulled some other appropriate fabrics out of my stash boxes to make a few more

oh, and that ric rac? right out of the box of goodies I bought at an estate sale this past summer (from what I saw of the lady's house, she would approve!)


these are the wool flowers (and leaf) that I've been knitting for my hat

the idea here is to do all of this felting at once

my main issue right now is that I just don't have much in the way of felt-able wool yarn on hand that isn't either off white (like the left overs from the knitting of the hat) or some very dark color

so the next few that I knit will probably be all that off white then I'll have to do some work with the colors later -- maybe use the Copic markers on this

I worked up this swatch last night

but it will never be a sweater

problem #1 -- I seriously did not get gauge -- usually I'm pretty close, but it's supposed to be 18.5 stitches = 4 inches and this is more like 15 stitches = 4 inches

problem #2 -- even though we like the striping pattern, those "floats" between the colors will be a problem in the finished product -- we have a dog that likes to sit on the DH -- dogs have claws -- claws + "floats" = lots of snagged sweater repairs

so I'm on the prowl again for a sweater pattern that fits all the needed qualities -- ie: the DH likes it and I like it well enough to stick with it and get it knit -- I found one this morning -- a free download even -- problem is I don't read German!!! {sigh}

I did find a couple others tho', so I'll keep working on it

you'd think that someone that can babble on in a blog almost every day of the year would not be having such a hard time writing the Christmas letter, but no, I'm struggling with it -- best get back to it

never jump into a pile of leaves with a wet sucker

heh -- yeah, one of my favorite Peanuts quotes ever!

but no one said I can't have a wet sucker while I'm creating a pile of fabric leaves (I'll take one of those caramel apple ones, thank you)

this pile of leaves is what I've been working on for the last few days

all of these are two sided, fabric, have been stitched and turned and pressed

and the three on the right side there have been hand quilted -- all around the edges and the "veins" added

that would be 3 done and 58 to go

ACK!

well, no one said this was going to be fast

time spent yesterday on some other projects as well -- slowly closing in on having all the Christmas sewing finished

and now I'm trying to get a Christmas letter written so I can mail my cards

last night I decided to go ahead and frog out an entire sweater -- I will be using some of the yarn to create a whole new sweater for the DH -- not exactly a gift, since he sat and watched me do all of the "un-knitting", but hopefully he will like the new sweater that emerges as well as he liked the one I ripped because it had developed some wear issues

just a few more packages to wrap and I'll be ready to ship off Christmas to my California friend too

today, a few errands to run first, then back to work

cruising through the projects

finished embroidering the second onesie

I like this one too

I used a slightly different stitch on this one, just to see which approach worked better

the DH likes the first one better -- I like this one

ah well, C'est la vie



there was some work done at the sewing machine yesterday too

a second pillow cover -- using up pieces left over from prior quilting projects I was able to create this very colorful version (one picture is the front, one is the back)

even with the piecing of the fabric this one went quicker than the first one I did -- practice helps I guess

the machine also stitched up a batch of aspen leaves which have been turned and are waiting for pressing

one more big sewing project to go!
the knitting of the hat for felting is complete!

this thing looks huge!!!!

after I finished this I started working on the flowers that will decorate it

I want to do all of the felting at once -- if I'm going to run hot water and use the washer it might as well be for both items


I'm working on some calendars for Christmas gifts

the software that I'm using is not exactly "state of the art"

after one attempt at printing all of the pages as a package and having to piece meal repair the job, I'm now printing them in a slower, but much more accurate fashion

just happy to be able to do that

hopefully when I go to run errands tomorrow I'll be able to have them bound and punched and they'll be all done

rollin' right along

one onesie

I like the way this came out --

and it didn't take me very long to stitch this up (by hand no less)

I'm fiddling with digitizing the line drawing, but just for the practice and possibly for use on other items

I couldn't figure out any way I'd be able to do a onesie on the sewing machine -- there just isn't enough room to manipulate the fabric so you can stitch through only one layer -- too little

but I'm thinking there will be lots of other projects for a little boy that this brand will look good on

I'll be doing one more onesie -- probably today

there are a couple of other sewing projects on the "to do" list

and of course the wrapping of packages to get started on (I did some shopping on line last week, and the boxes are starting to arrive!)

lots of things to work on!